This blog will contain a summarized report of what happened in the real estate market during May of this year. All the information in this blog is drawn from the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Realtors May Market Report.
The housing market has been facing a few struggles similar to those we saw during the 2008 Recession. Home prices are at an all-time high and are having a major effect on buyers in the market. As mentioned in a previous blog, there has been a decrease in inventory which we see in the May market report, inventory shrank 30% to 1,073 units. Most likely in accordance, new listings were down 15.9% to 291.
Luckily, the economy is in better shape than it was during the Great Recession so we shouldn’t see the same extreme parameters. Pending sales increased to 15.7% to 147 while the average number of days on the market decreased 5.1% to 130 days. Demand increased relative to supply which was shown by the Months Supply of Inventory which was down 41.4% to 9.5 months.
Median prices rose 16.6% to $139,000 with a 44.9% increase in closed sales from this time last year. The average sales price decreased 0.2% to $136,265 and the Affordability Index dropped 7.1%, most likely due to economic circumstances as discussed in previous blogs. However, it is important to remain optimistic as unemployment rates are low and more and more jobs are available, especially in the North Country.